Here Ron Artest thinks he is a Rocket already and leans into take off position

It does not take a rocket scientist to tell if Ron Artest at his best will improve the Houston Rockets. He will.

Artest wanted to be reunited with Coach Rick Adelman. Rick was his coach in Sacramento when Ron started playing there.

So the trade was made…

A source close to the Kings said Tuesday a trade has been agreed upon sending Ron Artest to Houston for former Sacramento point guard Bobby Jackson, first-round draft pick Donte Greene, next season’s first-round pick and cash considerations of approximately $1 million.

source

Like a lot of NBA trades, one team is clearing out the trash or reducing salary cap or trying to get younger while the other team is picking up an aging NBA star. That is what we will call Ron Artest, an aging NBA star. Please don’t snicker.

The other NBA teams will have to perk up and pay attention to the Rockets. With Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and Ron Artest in the starting lineup, the Houston Rockets will be a team to contend with in the playoffs. That is right, the playoffs.

Now that brash prediction does not hold if Ron Artest once again self destructs.

To keep Ron from self destructing will be Coach Rick Adelman’s job.

When Artest, a mercurial small forward, was traded to the Kings from Indiana in January 2006, he flourished under Adelman. The Kings went 26-14 down the stretch with Artest after starting 18-24, then pushed the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs to six games in a competitive first-round playoff series.

As recently as this summer, Artest had shared his admiration for Adelman, saying he wished his free-agency year had come that season because of his ability to play well under the veteran coach. It is an ideal reunion for Artest, who decided not to opt out of his contract by the June 30 deadline and almost immediately expressed regret for doing so.

By the way, Donte Green, the 6′10″ forward going to Sacramento, appears to have a bright future as a scoring forward. We will have to keep our eyes on his career.

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The Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers took over the Western Conference lead going into the playoffs with one game to go.

Western Conference
Team GB
1. y-LA Lakers —
2. x-New Orleans 0.5
3. x-Houston 1.0
4. y-Utah 2.5
5. x-San Antonio 1.5
6. x-Phoenix 2.5
7. x-Dallas 5.5
8. Denver 7.5
9. Golden State 7.5

source

Kobe got the job done.

MVP candidate Kobe Bryant had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists before sitting out the fourth quarter, and the Lakers routed the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs 106-85 for their seventh win in eight games.

“It was a big game for us,” Bryant said. “It was another step in the right direction. Going into the playoffs is all about momentum. Now, we just have to take it up another notch once the playoffs start.”

source

Kobe Bryant taking it to the hole on Tim Duncan

Image details: San Antonio Spurs v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

If the Lakers beat the Kings in their last game they will assure themselves to be the Western Conference Champions. They have the tie breaker over New Orleans and Chris Paul.

The Lakers are playing excellent basketball right now as the San Antonio Spurs and Tim Duncan found out.

The Lakers also won the Pacific Division with the victory.

How strange to see the Boston Celtics on top of the East and the Los Angeles Lakers on top of the West. They have not met in the finals since 1987.

NFL Basketball special comment Winning the West has to help Kobe Bryant’s quest for MVP of the NBA.

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Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.

The Houston Rockets go a 12 game win streak, start playing great ball, have everything working, get themselves back into the playoff picture and “Pow” they are out of it.

Yao Ming has a stress fracture and will not be able to play for the rest of the season.

The Rockets are done for.

No Yao, no playoffs.

They may win for a while on pure emotion and T-Mac going off for a lot of points, but sooner or later they will miss long tall Yao.

“It is not an injury we feel he can play with,” Rockets team doctor Tom Clanton said. “I’ve made the recommendation that it be treated surgically and we are working with him to get other opinions just to be certain that that is indeed what should be done.”

If Yao chooses surgery, Clanton said, it would involve placing screws across the bone to hold it together. The second option would be to treat it with a cast and crutches. Both options involve a healing time of about four months.

Clanton would not say when Yao could play again, but said he doesn’t expect the center to miss the Beijing Olympics in August.
source

This is truly sad news.

The Houston Rockets were on a roll and Yao was having a great season. Many, including your intrepid author, believed that the Rockets would continue to move up the playoff ladder to become a team that no one would want to face in the playoffs.

Now it will be tough to just get a playoff spot.

China rules Yao

Even worse are the rumors that China runs Yao’s career and they are the ones resting Yao to be ready for the Olympics.

Teams usually take a few days after the discovery of an injury like a stress fracture to weigh the merits of waiting or surgery. Not the Rockets, apparently–boom, right to surgery for Yao, out for the season.

Add in the Rockets’ blistering 12-game current winning streak and theoretical dreams of competing for the title this season (VERY theoretical, but 12 in a row is 12 in a row) and I can’t remember a good team shutting down their star center this fast.

Does it have to do with getting Yao ready for the Olympics? I mean, there’s no doubt that China runs Yao’s career and negotiates a lot of his Western deals. source

T-Mac

It just gets worse with the Rockets most likely giving up on building around Tracy McGrady with his bad back and now faced with Yao Ming with a stress fracture. Will this become a Bill Walton type repetitive foot problem? Do you want to build around that?

Now don’t get me wrong, the Houston Rockets were not going to take out Kobe and the Lakers or Tim Duncan and the Spurs for the NBA Title, but still they were on a mighty roll and would be a tough out in the playoffs.

How things can change in one day.

Goodbye Yao.

Goodbye, Rockets.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can Houston make the playoffs?

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How can this be?

It is a reach even for 7′ 6″ Yao Ming to win 11 in a row.

Tracy McGrady playing consistently good?

Houston even trades two players away, do not suit up the guy they get and still keep winning!

How can this be?

Well, admittedly, most of the teams they beat were pretty bad teams, but they did just knock off Chris Paul and the Hornets (sounds like a 60’s rock group) and there were a couple of close scrapes with the Cleveland PreWallace LeBrons led by Cavalier LeBron James, which the Rockets managed to pull out.

Still… They are winning!

And get this, they have not lost in February and finish the month with games against the Big Ben-less Bulls, the Wizards minus Agent Zero, and the Pau-less Grizzlies (get it, paw-less Grizzlies, ok, bad joke).

Sounds like 3 more wins and an undefeated month to me.

Side Note: Your intrepid author was pretty harsh on Houston a while back and is currently flogging himself.

It seems the Rockets are worthy.

When both Yao and T-Mac are on, they are pretty hard to beat. In fact, they will kill you from inside and out.

But there is a new element developing and we will have to see if it stays when they play the better clubs.

The Rockets have held eight of their last nine opponents under 90 points. source

Coach Rick Adelman is trying to get this team to take small steps towards being a top team. Right now they are in a dog fight to just make the playoffs.

“I told the team, ‘You put yourself in position to make a move,’ ” coach Rick Adelman said. “It’s our season to make what we want to make of it. Are we going to take advantage of what we’ve done to get to this point? We’ve gotten back into the whole thing. Or are we going to go up and down?” source

Hard to complain right now. Winning can breed a certain level of confidence that will improve your play once the big boys come into town.

Learning to defend your home court is almost essential.

These are the lessons the Rockets learn as they feed off of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Do the Rockets make the playoffs?

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We only have to look to Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports to tell us about the Top 5 most disappointing teams of the season and, to be sure, you have your favorites as well.

Your intrepid author’s illustrious comments are in italics.

We are the most disappointing. Oh no!

1. Houston – They discovered the truth about this team’s limitations. From Tracy McGrady’s mental and physical fragility to an absence of athleticism, they were a flawed power. They’re devoid of an identity, stuck between what they were with Van Gundy and what they’ll never be with Adelman. source

What the heck? This team is slow and has put everything into two guys that have never won anything.

2. Bulls – Yes, the Bulls struggled to compartmentalize the Kobe Bryant trade talks and some of their own failed bids for contract extensions. Nevertheless, this is still largely a winning, young core. Sure, general manager John Paxson wishes he could have do-overs on choosing Ben Wallace over Tyson Chandler, and Tyrus Thomas over LaMarcus Aldridge, but he’s still had far more makes than misses.

Surprise, no Kobe, no winning. The Skiles message could last so long with a team that just lacks an inside presence.

3. Milwaukee – Among league executives, there’s a belief that the Bucks are close to declaring everyone available, except for Yi Jianlian and Andrew Bogut. Larry Harris is fighting for his job as general manager. Owner Herb Kohl mandated playoff contention in the offseason, and the Bucks are spiraling. In the horrific 45-point loss to the Pistons, one league executive monitoring the game said of the Bucks, “After five minutes, that team just quit.”

Stop picking on this team. They are what they are, and that is very young. Yi and Bogut can be for real given time and teammates.

4. Miami – The Heat are bad now and Shaquille O’Neal’s cap-clogging contract doesn’t expire until 2010, when Wade can opt-out into free agency. He is the biggest sports star in South Florida, but he has to wonder how long and how hard Riley will go as the Heat’s emperor. After all, he has rebuilt Miami twice now, won his elusive post-Lakers title, and it’s difficult to believe he’ll summon that winner within to stay with the grind.

Riley eventually burns all his teams out. Shaq is old and Wade has zero teammates. The Shaq trade was for an instant title and it worked. Now it is over.

5. New York – Thomas promises that he isn’t leaving until he’s delivered that championship. Of course, the fear in New York is that Dolan will hold him to his word. Everyone keeps saying that it can’t go on like this, but it does and it probably will. As much as Thomas has feigned befuddlement over his players’ effort, those inside and outside the locker room at MSG have privately doubted his work habits as coach this season. To think that he’s even preparing for opponents, even putting in the hours, is debatable.

You have heard from me on the Isiah Thomas situation before. Bad management, poor coaching, and selfish players. Lots of talent, but no way to channel it.

Houston and the Bulls can still improve in this season. The other 3 have an uphill battle.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Do you have any disappointing additions?

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Yao Ming is King

So just when did this happen?

What is that?

You know, Yao, Yao Ming, the center for the Houston Rockets.

Yeah, Yao. So what happened?

You know, Yao has become the best center in the National Basketball Association!

No, you mean like Shaq or something right?

Can’t be Shaq, he has become a part-time player in recent years. Always finding a way to miss major parts of he regular season and then just show up for the playoffs. Yeah, in any one game it would not be smart to bet against the Shaq, but over the long haul, his best days are done.

Well, what kind of numbers is Yao putting up?

Try 21 and 11 as in 21 points and 11 boards.

Hey, Kevin Garnett, what about him?

Nope, Power Forward masquerading as a Center. We are talking pure centers here.

Yi Jianlian

How about that Yi kid?

You mean Yi Jianlian. He is good and still young and could get better. Yao thinks he will be better than him someday.

For now, Yao still is the king of basketball in China. Yao and Yi each had their share of highlights in the much-anticipated first match up of the country’s greatest player and its top rising star, and Yao’s Houston Rockets beat Yi’s Milwaukee Bucks 104-88 on Friday night.

Yao, the five-time All-Star, had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Yi, the 20-year-old rookie, had 19 points and nine rebounds.

“His talent is unbelievable,” Yao said. “You ask me how good he can be? I can’t say that. But I think he’ll be better than me.” source

Let me repeat. Yao Ming is the best center in the NBA. We are talking pure good old fashioned centers here.

NBA Yao and Yi factoid – The game is expected to draw more than 200 million viewers in China. By comparison, last week’s New England-Indianapolis game in the NFL drew an average audience of about 34 million. Last year’s Super Bowl drew an average of 93 million. source

Tim Duncan

Wait a minute, Tim Duncan. Surely, Tim is the best Center in the game today!

Yes, Tim Duncan is the best Center, but again we are talking good old fashioned back to the basket Centers here. There are very few of them around. Today’s fast paced offenses have provided room for teams to slip in faster, smaller, less strong players in at Center. Those players are essentially third forwards.

Tim Duncan will be facing the basket in most cases, unless there is a definite mismatch.

Why do you think the NBA was going crazy over Greg Oden? He is a pure center! They are hard to come by and harder to develop.

Still you have to go with Yao as the best pure Center in the NBA.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Who is your pick for best Center?

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Post from: NBA Obsessed